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The Girl Named Dirty

Zhivko Zhelev has completed his illustration of the girl named Dirty. This is the story in the first book of the Kingdom Tales trilogy about the girl who preferred to live with the pigs rather than accept the kindness and protection of Mercie, the wife of the Caretaker of Great Park. In the end, Dirty discovers Kingslove and becomes Cleone, the clean one. Obviously, this is a story of reclamation and redemption.

During Jeremy Mains’ illness, the girl once named “Dirty” contacted us frequently by phone or Facebook to see how Jeremy was doing. When our son was ten to eleven years old, this young woman who was in her thirties came to live with us and she, and Jeremy became great buddies.

“Dirty” was hungry for love, and the journey to find that love was bumpy and strenuous. She lived with us off and on (and with the newlyweds Doug and Melissa Timberlake—our son-in-law and daughter) over a period of ten years. In time “Dirty” did find Kingslove while I was writing the first book of the trilogy, and so her story became a central part of these allegorical tales.

Yes, there is a “Dirty”. Yes, there is a Cleone. Yes, redemption—Kingslove—shines and transforms and shimmers and bathes us with light and reflected glory, and we all become much more than we knew we could be since most of us have “pig” propensities of some kind.

Pre-order the newly revised, re-illustrated and re-published Tales of the Kingdom trilogy. We are providing Backer levels for illustrated ebooks, a level for the Limited Kickstarter newly illustrated, hardcover Collectors edition (with the names of all the Backers printed in the book, numbered and with a personal endorsement to the recipients of your choice), and if we exceed our goal of $20,400, calendars and posters, greeting cards and bookmarks.

“Cleone” the girl once named Dirty phoned to let us know that a tumor had been discovered on her brain and to give us the date of her operation. A friend reported that no malignancy had been discovered, the tumor was benign and the surgeons had been able to remove it all with no damage to the brain.

If you would like to discover more stories of reclamation and redemption, I encourage you to help us make this a successful Kickstarter Campaign by choosing a Backer level that allows you to pre-order books not only with “The Girl named Dirty” but “The Apprentice Juggler” as well as “The Baker Who Loved Bread” or “Hero’s Quest”—all stories that assure the reader that redemption is for real, there is a King and if we hunt for Him, we will find Him. Click on this link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingdomtalestrilogy/the-kingdom-tales-3-illustrated-storybooks-that-ki.

All the stories of our lives, fantastical or fictional or non-fictional, are still being written. In the telling of them we find one another and ourselves and His-story as well.